Against Lowly Orioles, Sonny Gray Drags the Yankees Even Lower

Image

Sonny Gray was smiling as he exited the game to loud boos from the Yankee Stadium crowd on Wednesday.CreditElsa/Getty Images

By Wallace Matthews

Aug. 1, 2018

In a season of ups and mostly downs for Sonny Gray, this was undoubtedly the nadir: exiting the game to the sound of booing from the biggest Yankee Stadium crowd of the season, having just allowed seven earned runs in less than three innings to the worst team in baseball. And yet, as he walked off the mound, he was flashing a toothy grin.

Gray had pitched well in his previous three starts, offering hope that he was returning to the form he had showed in the first three years of his career with the Oakland Athletics. But on Wednesday Gray turned in his worst outing of the season at a very poor time, with the Yankees about to embark on a four-game series on the road against the Boston Red Sox, the team they trail by five and a half games in the American League East.

“Honestly, I was just frustrated,” Gray (8-8, 5.56 E.R.A.) said of his smiling after the Yankees 7-5 loss to the Orioles. “I think that everyone handles frustrations differently. I’ve never been a guy who, when things aren’t going his way and you get hit around, to come off the field and throw a glove or throw a hat or punch something. I’ve always been a mellow guy who tries to think things through and get over it and move on. That’s the way I’ve handled things my whole life. Whether that’s good or bad, I don’t know.”

Clearly, the Yankee Stadium crowd of 47,206, swelled by an additional 2,000 fans admitted via standing-room admission introduced for August, thought it was bad. And for the first time this season, Manager Aaron Boone entertained the thought of removing Gray from the starting rotation — an option made more attractive by the performance of the newly acquired Lance Lynn, who pitched four and one-third scoreless innings in relief of Gray.

“Those are all things that we’ve got to evaluate and consider,” Boone said of Gray’s spot in the rotation. “We do have some options now. We’re not going to be emotional about it right now. But we’ll all get together and try to come up with the best options going forward.”

Also clear was that Gray’s method of handling adversity differed from that of the Yankees’ third-base coach, Phil Nevin, who was caught on television cameras berating the team’s infielders following a couple of sloppy innings. In the second inning, a line drive misjudged by right fielder Shane Robinson led to two runs, and some lackadaisical play by second baseman Gleyber Torres led to another run in the third.

“When you go through this over the course of 162 games, I think you use different ways to fire guys up,” Nevin said. “No disrespect to anybody across the field or anything like that, but we’re better than what we showed today. We had plenty of time to get back in that game. It was only the third inning. So that was it.”

The mistakes left the Yankees down by 7-1 after the third inning, but a 39-minute rain delay helped cool things down. Torres went some way toward making up for his mistakes (he also failed to cover first base during an obvious bunting situation in the second inning) by hitting two home runs — the second of which was a three-run shot in the ninth inning that cut the Baltimore lead to 7-5 — and by making a fine relay to the plate to complete a 9-4-2 double play that ended the fifth.

“A lot of that is youthfulness, inexperience, learning the nuances of the position where you just do things as second nature,” Boone said. “Gleyber for the most part is really good at that, but those were a couple of plays that he needed to be on top of a little more.”

There were other lowlights: Cleanup hitter Aaron Hicks struck out looking three times, and Giancarlo Stanton struck out with the bases loaded to end the second, with the Yankees trailing 5-0. With the bases again loaded, in the eighth, pinch-hitter Neil Walker swung at the first pitch he saw from reliever Paul Fry and hit into an inning-ending double play. Orioles starter Alex Cobb, who entered the game at 2-14 with a 6.08 E.R.A., held the Yankees to just seven hits and one run over six innings.

But the Yankees problems began with Gray, who, after pitching a clean first inning, quickly unraveled in the second, allowing four hits, a walk and four runs before getting his first out.

It was a drastic regression from Gray’s previous three starts, all of which he won, allowing just two earned runs in 16 ⅓ innings, with 19 strikeouts. That such a setback came against the Orioles was surprising: Three of his eight wins this season had come against Baltimore.

“A few balls out there had eyes but for the most part it was getting behind in the count,” Boone said. “He wasn’t able to finish off hitters as well today, and when he gets hit around, he needs to trust that he can attack the strike zone.

“After he gives up a hard-hit ball, I feel like sometimes that’s where he’ll start to nibble a little bit, and all of a sudden he finds himself behind. Today it just spiraled and got away from him.”

Of more immediate concern, however, was Gray’s status in the Yankees’ rotation.

“At the end of the day I want them to do whatever is necessary to help us win, whatever that may be,” Gray said. “If I get the ball in five days, I’m going to take it and do my best to help us win the game. If not, I’ll be right there to do whatever I’m called upon.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B13 of the New York edition with the headline: Baseball; As Boos Rain Down, Gray Grins and Bears It. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe